Tomcat BVR tactics - Ward Carroll

[scotth6]

I have been watching lots of videos by this Youtuber and ex Tomcat RIO and instructor, Ward Carroll.  The latest vid is on BVR tactics which I thought some DCS pilots may be interested in.  Most of the vids I have watched of Ward's have not been tactical or technical, although there may be some of that scattered throughout.  I just find he is a great storyteller, and I would highly recommend anyone check out his other videos.  The first vid of his I saw was on the history of the Blue Angels, which had lots of info I had never learned before.

 

 

 

 

 

[eatthis]

this is a great vid

[Cpt. Weber]

Thanks for sharing, it's a really helpful video.

Nice reference for my BVR routines and exercises...

...if only the Sparrows we have at our disposal right now wanted to cooperate at all...

Edited August 10, 2021 by Cpt. Weber

[RaisedByWolves]

Hey Victory, do you sit around at home wearing your flightsuit from your glory days?

[Victory205]

Apparently, Ward thinks wearing one will bring views, clicks and revenue. That’s what Youtube is all about. 

 

I don’t own a flight suit myself, nor do I desire to be a “Youtube Celebrity”.

 

Everything you are seeing on his channel is very old news, and he gets a few things wrong just due to the passage of time, but I understand how it would be interesting to some. 

 

He is trying to get dialed in and up to speed on the HB Module, so stay tuned for more information about the RIO business in the future. He’s already been more willing to divulge certain things than I am. 

[jcdata]

Animosity..lol


There are LARPers wearing suits while flying DCS

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[AH_Solid_Snake]

16 hours ago, RaisedByWolves said:

Hey Victory, do you sit around at home wearing your flightsuit from your glory days?

 

Its kinda the equivalent of the white lab coat for the YouTube context. Simply wearing one makes the audience being targeted treat you more as an authority figure on the topic. An 80s iron man moustache probably would have a 500% uptick for same.

[lax22]

22 hours ago, Victory205 said:

 

He is trying to get dialed in and up to speed on the HB Module, so stay tuned for more information about the RIO business in the future. He’s already been more willing to divulge certain things than I am. 

That’s fantastic. I’m looking forward to watch any DCS related content he’ll upload in the future.

 

A while ago I saw a YouTube vid with Bio Baranek in which he was shown the DCS F14 and it looked like he was very impressed by the accuracy of the module.

[AH_Solid_Snake]

12 hours ago, lax22 said:

That’s fantastic. I’m looking forward to watch any DCS related content he’ll upload in the future.

 

A while ago I saw a YouTube vid with Bio Baranek in which he was shown the DCS F14 and it looked like he was very impressed by the accuracy of the module.

 

So much so that Bio co-created the Zone 5 campaign for DCS with Reflected.

[Karon]

On 8/10/2021 at 9:22 PM, Victory205 said:

Everything you are seeing on his channel is very old news, and he gets a few things wrong just due to the passage of time, but I understand how it would be interesting to some. 

 

He is trying to get dialed in and up to speed on the HB Module, so stay tuned for more information about the RIO business in the future. He’s already been more willing to divulge certain things than I am. 

 

Well, so far he did not talk about anything that is not a personal opinion, common knowledge or freely available (procedures-wise, for instance, the P-825, rev 2017 and 2002 come to mind, on top of others, and unless I did miss something). I hope at some point he will go more into the details of certain procedures barely mentioned in the available docs; perhaps later when he is up and running with DCS.

 

The thing is, at least of me (an enthusiast with no military or aviation background whatsoever), it is sometimes hard to discern the line that separates the "better not divulge" from what is freely sharable by former or active duty personnel. Moreover, when the source is not official (e.g. a random YouTube content creator), even discerning the apocryphal from the genuine is sometimes not really immediate either. Ward has great communicative skills, he is a pleasure to listen to, and his background gives him authority; hence solving one of the points I raised above. The former, instead, depends entirely on him.

About the flight suit, it is not necessary, but plays a part in constructing his persona, which totally makes sense considering he is on YouTube and the focus is on entertaining. I'm really looking forward to seeing him flying.

[kotor633]

Great video, great explanation! (For people like me who have no idea about this subject). 

[QuiGon]

I can also recommend his video on the Gulf of Sidra incidents:

 

 

I can't say how accurate his account is, but it definitely adds some nice flavor to other publicly available information on these incidents (e.g. Wikipedia).

 

 

Apart from the content on his own channel, there is also a video of him talking in length to some DCS folk:

 

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by QuiGon

[RaisedByWolves]

On 8/10/2021 at 6:25 PM, jcdata said:

There are LARPers wearing suits while flying DCS

 

 

 

 

 

Shakes head

Edited August 12, 2021 by RaisedByWolves

[Lt_Jaeger]

What's LARPers? 

Non native speaker

[Fenin]

32 minutes ago, Lt_Jaeger said:

What's LARPers? 

Non native speaker

The term originates in Live Action Role Play, a sort of nerd pass time where you build weapons out of pvc and pool noodles to bash each other around with at the park.  Sometimes people will go nuts and buy armor and whatnot as well.  A good way to view it in this context is 'playing pretend.'  

 

Source: I've been a nerd with a pool noodle stick beating up other nerds with pool noodle sticks, it's pretty fun, until someone falls into a fire ant mound. Then it's a party. 

[Victory205]

5 hours ago, Karon said:

 

Well, so far he did not talk about anything that is not a personal opinion, common knowledge or freely available ...

 

...About the flight suit, it is not necessary, but plays a part in constructing his persona, which totally makes sense considering he is on YouTube and the focus is on entertaining. I'm really looking forward to seeing him flying.

 

I'm referencing a couple of his other videos. Maybe there is a reason that he was once threatened by court martial, eh? 

 

Nothing wrong with trying to make money on Youtube. He's giving the audience what they want, telling old sea stories and talking about basic concepts. It's new and exciting for you.

[Karon]

3 hours ago, Victory205 said:

 

I'm referencing a couple of his other videos. Maybe there is a reason that he was once threatened by court martial, eh? 

 

Nothing wrong with trying to make money on Youtube. He's giving the audience what they want, telling old sea stories and talking about basic concepts. It's new and exciting for you.

 

Fair enough. He did not say anything incredible in my opinion, at least in the videos he posted. I guess that the sensibility of the military can be quite diverse, especially in such a critical period, so I do understand and respect your point.

 

If you think about it, men have been enjoying and dreaming about others' old sea stories since ancient times.

Speaking of which, when will we hear yours?

_{(well lads, I tried, now I'll see myself out!)}

[Whiskey11]

5 hours ago, Victory205 said:

 

I'm referencing a couple of his other videos. Maybe there is a reason that he was once threatened by court martial, eh? 

 

Nothing wrong with trying to make money on Youtube. He's giving the audience what they want, telling old sea stories and talking about basic concepts. It's new and exciting for you.

 

As a random, half aside, you don't happen to play with one of your old RIO buddies as your RIO do you?

Maybe someday, we'll be able to watch real procedures in action from the people who did it IRL.  It'd be fun to watch without the "muzzle" (over the whole Iran and F-14 restrictions things) on.

[Jakey-Poo]

TLDR: Do we actually KNOW yet when the Phoenix goes active/pit bull?
 

At 4:30 when he is covering “A-pole” or the missile going active it got me thinking about being able to apply this in game, and realizing I still have not seen an uncontested answer to the following question - Do we have a solid way to discern in game (from the pilots seat) when the missile goes active or “pit bull”?  Would love to be able to notch, but everytime I try to follow the latest info I get about the Phoenix going active I always lose track and the missile goes stupid. 

[kotor633]

That should be this indicator for it (I'm not an F-14 expert, but see manual, page 208):

[DD_Fenrir]

5 hours ago, Jakey-Poo said:

TLDR: Do we actually KNOW yet when the Phoenix goes active/pit bull?
 

At 4:30 when he is covering “A-pole” or the missile going active it got me thinking about being able to apply this in game, and realizing I still have not seen an uncontested answer to the following question - Do we have a solid way to discern in game (from the pilots seat) when the missile goes active or “pit bull”?  Would love to be able to notch, but everytime I try to follow the latest info I get about the Phoenix going active I always lose track and the missile goes stupid. 

 

There is no guaranteed 100% no fail method to keep a TWS track. You can only do your best to mitigate the chance of dropped tracks by doing the following:

 

1. If possible, choose your engagement environment or draw the enemy to a more favourable terrain - the AWG-9 prefers flat terrain or sea; mountainous terrain can produce spurious returns that break tracks.

2. Skyline your opponent - at launch ensure your  at least -2,000ft below your target

3. Launch at as high speed as you can

4. Crank - push the targets to within 5-10 degrees of your radar gimbal until pitbulll (the TTI numbers to the right of the track will flash); the crank should be done promptly but not too vigorously as the radar gimbal motors can only go so fast...

5. Notch - put the enemy on your beam and go low

 

Sometimes the enemy will notch; sometimes they will try to do their own crank to hold a missile solution on you; sometimes, despite your best efforts the track just drops. 

[QuiGon]

4 hours ago, DD_Fenrir said:

mountainous terrain can produce spurious returns that break tracks.

 

You keep saying that, which makes it sound like mountains would behave different than other terrain, but this is not the case. As long as you stay higher than the terrain and have the MLC filter active, there won't be any spurious returns at all, regardless if the terrain is flat or mountainious, as I said here:

 

On 8/9/2021 at 9:03 AM, QuiGon said:

Mountains only cause returns if you fly below them, just like any ground clutter. If you stay above the ground (including mountains) then there will be no spurious returns at all (unless you are in Pulse Search or have the MLC filter off, but that doesn't happen with Jester).

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by QuiGon

[DD_Fenrir]

And I keep saying it because :

 

1. I repeatedly in game have more issues losing tracks when looking down at targets with mountainous terrain in the near background e.g. - 4 x Mig-21s at 19,000 ft over mountains with peaks at ~15,000 ft at ranges over 40nm; if I am at or above the MiGs height I repeatedly lose tracks until I am under 25nm range. If I descend to ~16,000ft I get far fewer dropped tracks. I have flown (and continue to fly) this scenario repeatedly for 2 years on my squads dedicated training server and IT IS A FACTOR.

 

2. From some sources I have read this was also a reported limitation of the real AWG-9.

 

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by DD_Fenrir

[Biggus]

That matches my experience.  I wasn't sure if I was imagining it when I noticed it a year or so ago. 

[QuiGon]

1 hour ago, DD_Fenrir said:

And I keep saying it because :

 

1. I repeatedly in game have more issues losing tracks when looking down at targets with mountainous terrain in near the background e.g. - 4 x Mig-21s at 19,000 ft over mountains with peaks at ~15,000 ft at ranges over 40nm; if I am at or above the MiGs height I repeatedly lose tracks until I am under 25nm range. If I descend to ~16,000ft I get far fewer dropped tracks. I have flown (and continue to fly) this scenario repeatedly for 2 years on my squads dedicated training server and IT IS A FACTOR.

 

2. From some sources I have read this was also a reported limitation of the real AWG-9.

 

1) Loosing tracks is something different than having spurious returns appearing on the screen! I was referring to the latter in my previous answer.

Of course targets get lost more often within mountainious terrain, as they can fly behind a mountain high enough to shield them entirely and since the radar can't penetrate mountains they get lost. That doesn't cause spurious returns on the radar scope though!

 

2) Yes, IRL this is an issue as the RIO needs to adjust gain and filter levels at which radar returns should appear as contacts on the scope. This is not something that is simulated in DCS though, which is very unfortunate as I would love to play with those gain and filter knobs!